Medilink East and West Midlands will operate under Medilink Midlands in a move aimed to serve the best interests of the life sciences sector in the region.

This unification was unanimously endorsed, in principle, by the Boards of both organisations in June and is the culmination of a strategic alignment that has been developing over the last six years.

Under Medilink Midlands, the organisation will have a combined network of over 8,000 contacts within the life sciences sector. This includes the NHS and key universities, along with the many businesses that operate in the sector, ranging from innovative start-ups, right through to multi-nationals such as 3M, Walgreens Boots Alliance, The Binding Site, Quotient Sciences, Kimal and Salts Healthcare.

The two organisations first began working together in 2014 with the initiation of a Midlands wide skills programme. Since then a number of other collaborative programmes have been established to help grow the sector in areas as diverse as personalised medicine, digital health, defence medicine, inward investment and international trade.

This amalgamation will serve to further utilise the skills, knowledge and expertise resident within the region and will provide a more connected focus on influencing Midlands-wide and national initiatives.

Keith Widdowson, chair of Medilink East Midlands, said: “This move to bring the two organisations together fulfils a real need in the life sciences market. With the rich history and track record of innovative life science companies across the East and West Midlands, combined with the strength of depth in the supply chain, the future partnership and growth opportunities for our companies will drive the Midlands forwards to ever greater heights.”

Prof Martin Levermore DL, chair of Medilink West Midlands, added: “This is an opportune time to formally bring together the East and West Midlands life science community. The East and West Midlands complement each other wonderfully and there is a clear and logical connection between the two regions. As Medilink Midlands, we will strive to ensure that what is great in our region is raised to the highest stage and what is already good will be helped by us to become even better giving a pan regional delivery for all Medilink members.”